Curtis Musicians Perform at the Mann Center June 29-July 1

Students and recent graduates perform as soloists with the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Rossen Milanov

Curtis students and recent graduates make their Philadelphia Orchestra debuts at the Mann Center June 29, June 30, and July 1 under the direction of Rossen Milanov, artistic director of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center and a 1994 graduate of Curtis.

Works by Beethoven are showcased on Monday, June 29 at 8 p.m., including Romance No. 2 for violin and orchestra with Curtis student Benjamin Beilman as soloist, and Piano Concerto No. 4 featuring 2009 graduate Kyu Yeon Kim. The program also includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus.

Twins Christina and Michelle Naughton, second-year Curtis students, perform Lutos?awski's Variations on a Theme by Paganini and Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365, on Tuesday, June 30 at 8 p.m. The concert also features Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream and Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals, narrated by Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter.

On Wednesday, July 1 at 8 p.m., fourteen-year-old Curtis violinist Yu-Chien Tseng performs Vivaldi's Four Seasons with conductor and harpsichordist Lio Kuokman, a 2009 graduate. Lio also leads the Philadelphia Orchestra in a performance of Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro before passing the baton to Rossen Milanov, who conducts Stravinsky's Suite from The Firebird and Theofanidis's Rainbow Body.

Tickets are $30 and $50, and lawn seats are $10. To order tickets visit www.ticketphiladelphia.org, call 215-893-1999, or visit one of the Mann Center box offices at 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue or the Kimmel Center at Broad and Spruce Streets.

Nineteen-year-old violinist Benjamin Beilman studies with Ida Kavafian at Curtis and holds the William H. Roberts Annual Fellowship. He began playing the violin at age five, and in the years since has assembled an impressive array of honors. A winner of Astral Artists 2009 National Auditions, he was also awarded the Milka/Astral Violin Prize, designated for a violinist invited to join the Astral Artists roster. Mr. Beilman won first prize at the 2009 Corpus Christi International Competition, where he was also awarded the special Bach prize, and the gold medal at the Stulberg International String Competition. As the grand prize-winner of the American String Teachers' Association national solo competition, he made his solo debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2008. Mr. Beilman has performed with the Fort Collins, Toledo, Dearborn, and Birmingham-Bloomfield symphony orchestras as the winner of their respective young artist competitions. As a chamber musician, Mr. Beilman has been a featured artist at the Marlboro Music Festival since the age of seventeen and has performed at the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland. He will perform at Music from Angel Fire this summer and will perform with Ms. Kavafian and cellist Peter Wiley as part of Curtis On Tour in 2010.

Twenty-three-year-old Seoul native Kyu Yeon Kim began studying piano at age five and was admitted to the Korea National University of Arts at the age of fifteen on the prodigy entrance program. Since her orchestral debut at age ten, Ms. Kim has collaborated with the Seoul Philharmonic, Korean Symphony, Sungnam Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Conservatory Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Hungarian Chamber Orchestra, and others. In 2008 she performed as a soloist with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin and will perform with the orchestra again in 2010. She has also given many solo recitals in Korea, most recently at the 2008 Busan International Music Festival, and she returns to Korea in July for a solo recital at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul. She won the grand prize at the Twenty-Sixth Korean Piano Competition in 1999, the first prize at the Nineteenth Bartók-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition in Virginia, and the first prize at the 2001 Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition in Salt Lake City. Most recently she competed in the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, where she was a semifinalist. In May she graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Gary Graffman and held the Yvonne K. Druian Fellowship. In September she enters the New England Conservatory, where she will study with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun.

Christina and Michelle Naughton began their piano studies at age four. In the fall of 2007, they began their studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where Christina holds the Hirsig Family Fellowship and Michelle holds the Bernard M. Guth Fellowship. They have performed extensively as soloists, with orchestra, and in piano duo.

Christina made her orchestral debut at the age of nine performing Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major. She was the bronze medalist at the quadrennial Gina Bachauer Young Artist International Piano Competition, and, as a member of the Vesta Trio, won the gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Michelle made her orchestral debut at the age of ten performing Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488. She won first prize at the PianoArts Biennial National Piano Concerto and Solo Competition, and was the gold medal winner in the quadrennial Virginia Waring International Piano Competition.

As a piano duo, the twins have performed with Cleveland's Red {an orchestra}, the Erie Philharmonic, the Gulf Coast Symphony, Chicago's Park Ridge Orchestra, and the Sheboygan Symphony, as well as on the Artist Series of Sarasota, the UAB Piano Series, the Rancho Mirage Library Classical Piano Series, the Chamber Music San Francisco Series, and Chicago's "Music in the Loft" and Pianoforte classical piano series. Their performances have been broadcast on WFMT, Chicago, and WHYY, Philadelphia. This past season included a debut at the Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center, and upcoming concerts include the Steinway Society of the Bay Area's Piano series, the New Jersey Symphony, and Florida's Kravis Center.

Fourteen-year-old violinist Yu-Chien Tseng from Taipei, Taiwan, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008 and studies with Ida Kavafian. He holds the John J. Medveckis Annual Fellowship. Mr. Tseng recently won the junior division of the 2009 Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition. In 2004 he was the first-prize and youngest winner at several violin competitions, including the Taiwan National Music Competition, and he won third prize at the junior section of the 2006 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings, and the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Mr. Tseng began studying violin at age five; prior to entering Curtis, he studied with C. Nanette Chen.

Lio Kuokman, from Macau, China, graduated in May from the Curtis Institute of Music, where held the Albert M. Greenfield Fellowship. He studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller and harpsichord with Lionel Party, earning diplomas in both disciplines. Lio has led the Portland Repertory Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Canada, and, while on tour in China, the Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has served as apprentice conductor of the New York Youth Symphony for two years. In 2008 he was invited by Pinchas Zukerman to the National Arts Centre Conductors Programme in Canada, where he conducted the orchestra's gala performance. The same year he was awarded the David Effron Conducting Fellowship to serve as conducting fellow at the Chautauqua Institution. He has assisted in opera productions including Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, Carmen, and Ainadamar. In 2009 he led the Curtis On Tour ensemble, a group of students and faculty members, in performances across the country, from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to the Mondavi Center for the Arts in Davis, Calif. Before entering Curtis, he received a master's degree in piano performance from the Juilliard School. He has given recitals internationally and performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Camerata, Bacau Philharmonic in Romania, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

The summer home of the Philadelphia Orchestra for over thirty years, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, located in Philadelphia's beautiful Fairmount Park, continues its rich tradition as the Delaware Valley's premier outdoor cultural arts center. Concerts and programs encompass all musical genres from pop, jazz, r & b, rock, and contemporary to dance, theater, opera, and classical. The Mann Center for the Performing Arts presents diverse, world-class entertainment in a casually elegant and relaxed setting at affordable prices.

The Curtis Institute of Music educates and trains exceptionally gifted young musicians for careers as performing artists on the highest professional level. One of the world's leading music schools, Curtis provides full-tuition scholarships to all of its 162 students, ensuring that admissions are based solely on artistic promise. A Curtis education is tailored to the individual student, with personalized attention from a celebrated faculty and unusually frequent performance opportunities. This distinctive "learn by doing" approach to musical training has produced an impressive number of notable artists, from such legends as Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber to current stars Juan Diego Flórez, Alan Gilbert, Hilary Hahn, Jennifer Higdon, Leila Josefowicz, Lang Lang, and Time for Three.

CLASSICS AT THE MANN
A Curtis Celebration with the Philadelphia Orchestra